Underground art welcome on the underground
By paul August 14, 2010 2 Comments Re-Tweet This Share
Art should belong in the public arena right? What better canvas than a subway train? Wrong? It wasn’t long ago that subversive artists were “doing” their art in these places… illegally. These artists [admittedly not all were artists] were the scourge of the New York and subsequent subways. Now they’re emerging as recognised artists throughout the world. Although some prefer to remain incognito. They’re even legal in some underground railways. And above ground they’re celebrated as enriching cities like Melbourne. Where their works have become tourist attractions with bus tours showing the way. And so they should be. Try these wonderful creations found in Amsterdam. Talk about enriching otherwise boring and ugly environments.
Million Dollar Design were selected by the Amsterdam Public Transport Company to transform one of the old “Zilvermeeuw” subway cars into art [and their work has lived up to their name]. They were one of 40 artists that were selected to create a new subway carriage interior. “With our design, the common dark gray atmosphere of the underground has been transformed into a colorful underwater world. Mermaids swim along, an octopus hides under an umbrella and a turtle takes you on a journey into the unknown. The subway consists of two differently designed so-called ‘bins’ (compartments). One has a predominantly green color which reminds you of the deep underwater, where strange little creatures are floating around. The other which is purple, suggests that it’s closer to the surface, where small fish are flirting with the sparklings of the sunlight onto the water.”
It’s public-minded community art projects like this that make the mundane of cities into exciting, moving, living, giving, enriching environments. Worth living in. Worth sharing with the world. So what about us? Our cities shaping up for the Rugby World Cup? I don’t see much like it on our trains, buses, underpasses… yet?
A glass bird in the hand…
By paul July 16, 2010 No Comments Re-Tweet This Share
Stuck around the back of a nondescript building in Newton, Auckland, I find a treasure trove of glass artists. Katherine Rutecki and Luke Jacomb run a glass studio specialising in glass-blowing and casting glass in the lost wax method. Together they’ve formed Lukeke Design, under which they collaborate on a number of works that, while perform as objects of beauty, perform equally well in other ways in the home. As individual artists they have their own specialities. And it’s Kate I’ve come see about her glass birds…
Her fascination with birds began with a dream which she captured in this sketch, created in the middle of the night…
The birds take on human characteristics in a nightmarish, ghoulish scenario in these drawings.
But the works currently flying out the mould [it's actually a bit more difficult than that] are birds that celebrate flight, life and symbiosis… almost human-like expressions of togetherness, connectedness, an almost exquisite expression of love.
The process starts with a sculpture in clay. After a series of positive and negative versions in rubber, wax, plaster and finally glass, the piece emerges in a rough finish. After grinding and polishing it is finally sandblasted to give it the delicate, glowing finish that diffuses the light rather than bouncing off it.
The art of glassblowing is always fascinating to watch, mesmerising. What I love about these goblets is that, with their sand-blasted finish, they have an almost ceramic-like quality. They look stunning in monochrome white, black and various colours. Quite graphic and juxtaposed with their mix of classic and traditional forms.
Another find while in the studio was these cast glass Power Poles by Simon Lewis Wards… enigmatic yet so mundane. And quite beautiful. I’m looking at the power poles in my street quite differently now.
Nontoxic printmaker Mark Graver, the saviour of NZ printmaking?
By paul June 22, 2010 2 Comments Re-Tweet This Share
On my latest road trip up north to Kerikeri I discover NZ’s only fully non toxic printmaking studio buried in the lush subtropical gardens of Wharepuke. Mark Graver, who trained at Leeds Polytechnic UK and Camberwell College of Arts in London, now calls Northland home. He practices as a full time print-maker and painter but loves sharing his knowledge through teaching, writing books and exhibiting both in the gallery next to his studio as well as abroad. His passion though, is for printing in a clean, non toxic environment using natural and organic materials. He reckons it’s the only way to sustain the art of printmaking, as the usual methods and materials used are highly toxic leading to many studios and teaching facilities closing down.
But sustainable credentials aside, I love the earthy nature of his work, whether it’s the subject or the very materials he uses. For example, this one of series of colour etchings inspired by Monet’s Water Lilly paintings, Nympheas II …
And other etchings, Lavenham and Fairstar….
And in his paintings he mixes in earth, gravel and all manner of natural elements from his immediate environment… as in the painting Drive. I suspect that the very gravelly effect in this work is achieved with elements from his own driveway mixed in with a blend of other media.
So Mark Graver, please carry on your crusade for the true art of printmaking by keeping it clean… and “dirty” in terms of your painting. Oh, and by the way, why not meet Mark by staying at Wharepuke in one the cottages?
Plastic fantastic!
By paul June 13, 2010 No Comments Re-Tweet This Share
Sustainability is a cornerstone value for the CleverBastards brand… so I’d better back that up with some relevant posts. And while we at CBs champion art and design in NZ, we definitely follow what’s happening around the world. Inhabitat is a blog I follow and I’m impressed with so much of what they say and promote… eg this comp which invites viewers to vote on entries to find the winners in their Spring Greening Contest. We’re so into upcycling that we have a category dedicated to it. For those not familiar with the term Wikipedia says… “Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.” Or simply, creates from rubbish! Well check these finalists…
Cola Bottle Lamp by Sarah Turner was the winner. She turns plastic Coca Cola bottles into these intricately amazing lamps. She collects the throwaways, and after a good cleaning, sandblasts them to make them opaque. Then she cleverly cuts them them into decorative forms.
Pop Pendant Light made from recycled aluminium pull tabs by Mauricio Affonso. This is one of my favourites. I mean how could you get more basic than pull tabs! Feels a bit like the old 70’s disco balls.
But my fave is Carlos Alberto Montana Hoyos’s “A La Lata” Candy Bowl It is handcrafted with re-purposed aluminum can tabs woven together with cable-ties. Says Inhabitat: “The bowl appears to “float” on the translucent cable-ties. Its structure allows it to collapse inwards, with the ties packed tightly together. In this inverted position, the bowl can be used as a pencil holder.” Now that’s clever!
To tie that back to NZ [no pun intended] see what one of our very own CleverBastards, Andi Regan, is doing with cable-ties. Not bad eh?
A Kiwi wish comes true.
By paul June 7, 2010 No Comments Re-Tweet This Share
My Welly trip was so fruitful I’ve a few more blogs on clever people I met down there. Jennifer McIver of Wishbone Bikes and I met at their HQ in Newtown. Sadly, partner and designer Richard was away on business. A planned one hour meet ran into two as we found so much to talk about. Most of it on shared values that encapsulate their brand and ours, CleverBastards. Their story of taking their prototype product to market, via success at the German Kids Toys Awards and further success in Milan, is a wish come true. But it didn’t come easily… they’ve sweated the hard yards on getting their product right and produced right and at a price that is already meeting the market. World-wide. And all in an incredibly short time.
“The joy of transformation” sums up the genius of the Wishbone Bike. It grows as your kid grows… from year one it has three wheels, then the two wheels become one, and then at 4 or 5 years the wishbone frame is flipped giving it added height. Clever Hey? But that’s not all. It comes with true sustainable creds… kiln-dried, preservative-free plantation birch or ash, organic cotton and recycled packaging. They didn’t want to just produce more. “That’s why we challenged ourselves to create designs that transform your experience, reduce overall consumption, deliver a positive environmental outcome, and bring people closer together.” So you think that’s cool? Check these out….
Designs commissioned by Kiwi artists Neil Whittington with his endangered Giant Koru Snail and our very own Clever Bastard, Shane Hansen celebrate the importance of biodiversity. His Koru design “tells a story of flowing rivers and high mountains. It symbolises new life and relationships, calling on families globally to celebrate diversity, build community and work together for a bright future.” Now that’s a Kiwi wish worth wishing for.
For the well-groomed who don’t have a wardrobe.
By paul June 3, 2010 No Comments Re-Tweet This Share
Matterhorn Cafe, Cuba Street, Wellington. I met Nigel Groom and Emma Fox of Well-Groomed Fox on their return from their uber-successful trip to Cologne and Milan. What struck me straight up was their calm professionalism. It was as though they’ve done this time and again. But the reality is these hot young designers are still studying, post-grad. Their work shows a maturity beyond their experience, so I’m pretty excited about them already.
XY+Z Suit Rack has got out of the wardrobe to a roaring start achieving a finalist place at the Imm Cologne D3 ‘Design Talents’ Contest. I love the thinking behind the concept – the complete outfit on one rack, but doing it so graphically that it works in the bedroom like an objet d’art. Or any room for that matter. Breaking this paradigm must surely be the result of a flatting student… my daughters at uni are always struggling with lack of wardrobes. Now let’s see it in production please!
The C/Lamp deserves to be in the same room as XY+Z Suit Rack as it conforms to a similar aesthetic. But it leaps ahead of other lamps in its use of new LED lighting technology. It’s cunningly simple clamp system also adjusts height. Getting so much from such a deceptively simple design shows thorough investigation in the design process. Bloody clever!
Along the same design aesthetic lines, the stackable chair SC-001 together with C/Lamp, received high acclaim from design mag, Yatser in their “BEST of Salone Satellite 2010″. And that counts for young designers like these… clever bastards.
Could this be the Kiwi sun lounger we’ve been looking for?
By paul May 24, 2010 No Comments Re-Tweet This Share
This just might be the cool, comfy outdoor lounger to come out of Aotearoa that I’ve being looking for. Sculpted form to look great inside and out. Perfectly balanced it encourages you to lie back, chill out just… lounge about. Ideal for the lazy bastard, just like me. Oh and it ticks all the enviro boxes with materials like plantation grown bamboo panel and hemp covered cushion.
Loungeround together with Rockaround and Pil Pendant Lamp are the latest creations by Tim Wigmore for his 2010 Collection. All come with the standard lyrical humour we’ve come to expect from Tim together with his desire for functionality as well as a decent dose of fun. Hope he gets on with making some.
